Baton Rouge Advocate: Iaconelli helps group's Vanishing Paradise program
Feb 20
Michael Iaconelli knows the highs and lows of fishing Louisiana.
He qualified for his first Bassmaster Classic in 1999, the first time the Louisiana Delta was host to the most well-known bass tournament in the country. …
“You know I can’t forget what this area means to me,” Iaconelli said Thursday, the day before the opening of the Classic’s three-day run in the Crescent City. “I won the Classic here (in 2003). This is a place that changed my life.”
In 1999, Iaconelli said his “rookie” success here came after years spent chasing fish in the marshes bordering Chesapeake Bay.
“I guess that’s why I get asked about how a guy from New Jersey would know so much about the Louisiana Delta,” he said.
His explanation was an appetizer to what Iaconelli considered to be his main course.
“The area I won it in in 2003 was a small, clear-water pond. So I checked it when I came back here (in December) to begin practice for this Classic. I just wanted to see it and, when I pulled up to that spot, it was a great bay.”
Iaconelli said that sight was an epiphany for him, so much so that when representatives of the Louisiana Wildlife Federation and the National Wildlife Federation called for his endorsement of their Vanishing Paradise initiative he didn’t hesitate.
“I get a lot of requests to help with this and this that, and when I looked at it, it hit me because I was seeing it firsthand,” Iaconelli said after Friday’s opening day of the 2011 Classic. “A lot of us, a lot of people around this country, hear from afar about what’s going on in Louisiana, but until you see it …
“When I went (Venice, along the Mississippi River) it was new to me in 2003,” he said. “Now when I came back I saw that people are right when they talk about how much of Louisiana is washing away. I know it’s happening.”
Read the rest of Joe Macaluso’s article in the Baton Rouge Advocate here
